"Uh oh! So and so just stole your QOM." Not something a cyclist on Strava really likes to see. Especially when you're so competitive it's a competition to see who can be first in line for the bathroom when the group makes it to the coffee stop. Either way, when you see that notification and after determining that the QOM/KOM dethroning was legitimate and not done in a vehicle, you have two options: you can concede to second place or you can fight to take it back. This time, I chose to take ...
my first time trial world cup win
It’s been roughly three years since I’ve raced a world cup, my last being in Cantimpalos, Spain in late July 2014. So, when I was selected to go to Maniago (Italy) and Oostende (Belgium), I was excited to get back into things and more chances to perform. The trip overall went smoothly and we made it to our hotel in Spilimbergo with time to build bikes and get a ride in (I chose to stay back at the hotel and spin for half an hour on the rollers). Our rides for the next two days were spent ...
sometimes actions don’t speak louder than words
“Giiiiirlfriend,” the woman at the bagel shop said to me (she was new and I hadn’t gotten her name yet). “I hope if I keep riding my bike I get legs that look like yours. They look goooood!” I didn’t know what to say; she didn’t realize that she not only made my day in less than 30 seconds, she made me want to jump across the counter and hug her. This woman didn’t know my story. She didn’t know that almost 20 years ago I had surgery that would end up leaving my leg deformed and begin ...
blue, red, black, green and yellow
You know that feeling when you have something about to happen that you want to happen so bad it makes you nervous? The kind of not-being-able-to-eat nervous that has you running to the bathroom every 15 minutes? That kind that makes your stomach do flip flops? That was me today. I didn’t start getting nervous before a race until last year, leading up to Rio. I was a wreck the morning of the Paralympic trials. And the first day of racing in Rio. And today. I woke up to the first of three ...
“wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” – henry david thoreau
I was in a yoga class earlier this month where the instructor talked of a metaphor she had heard. Basically, she told us about how when you pick an apple and taste it and realize it’s gone bad, you don’t think about the apple being the cause for the sour/bad taste. Instead you think of the tree, where it’s planted, if it’s in the right soil, if it’s gotten enough sunlight. The tree must be taken care of to produce the best-quality apples it can produce. Just like we must take time to help ...